I'm a trekkie. All series except "enterprise", and not a lot of love for voyager, but it was ok. DS9's first season was kind of 'eh'. From the second season to the finale it was really good.

I have to disagree. That's a bottomless well. It'll hit technical barriers long before that.

You may be correct. I haven't had a lot of sleep of late. I saw it about a week ago, either here or reddit.

At any rate, and this is to Augusto Croppo specifically and also a general thought.

I do NOT know a great deal of the technical aspects of bitcoin. I'm still learning, and I am not a mathematician so a lot of it is currently beyond me. That being said, I am well versed in economics, particularly Austrian school, but I have read and understood Keynes to the extent that anyone can understand that gobbledygook. I understand markets and money.

What I am proposing is simple on it's face, but somewhat complex in it's actions. This, I think, is one future avenue to gain widespread acceptance of bitcoin. Yes, it has unique properties that make it IN ITSELF a vehicle for monetary transactions, and yes, I understand that this does not in itself generate fees.

Therefore it is incumbent on the bitcoin community, and especially miners, to implement schemes that DO generate these fees. And yes, this scheme would require a form of banking. This is not egregious. Banking in and of itself is not harmful to economies. Fractional reserve banking is, because it "creates" units of currency that do not currently actually exist. In it's base form, it borrows against what a lender can repay ahead of time. That is dangerous, but not egregious. In it's more modern form, the "central bank" sees those loans as actual money and adjusts the supply accordingly. That's straight up theft in the form of debasing the currency. This we do want to avoid.

But a bank or similar institution issuing debit cards that transact with the network is not a problem, except for technical issues that are frankly minor. I'll say for the sake of speculation that Visa decides to issue the Visa-B bitcoin debit card, and they charge the seller around 1 percent of their transactions. This is normal, actually a bit low. Visa averages around 1.6 percent. Or did about 5 years ago. This does NOT cause a decline in transactions, as accepting Visa gives merchants a huge advantage over those who don't. So now, in this example, you have a bitcoin denominated visa card. Visa already does "currency equivalent" transactions, so this would be trivial to them. Now, let's say that they put 10 percent of their income to transaction fees to facilitate the network. See how this could work?

Further, on a slightly different angle, large merchants like Target or Walmart could issue bitcoin denominated gift cards, with a portion of every sale set as a transaction fee (sale of the g/c). This too would add to the network, and would be advantageous to the merchant as it would be yet another avenue of revenue for them. It costs them nothing, only slightly reduces THEIR income on the purchase fee.

These are just two possible schemes to add to the TX fees in the network. If the miners are participants in such a schema, then it benefits them far beyond just generating BTC via mining, and it helps the merchants to contribute to those who maintain the security of the network. Using personal advantage as a springboard, such cooperative ventures benefit everyone involved, including the consumer who now has another avenue of transaction.

This is somewhat complex, but not overly complicated. This is doable with existing structures and networks. There is NO reason that it shouldn't be done that I can see.

Mainstream adoption WILL increase the value of bitcoin over time due to it's deflationary nature AND the inflationary nature inherent in standard fiat currencies. As more people use the currency, the demand for it will drive it's value upward. This has nothing to do with the network itself, but everything to do with it's artificial scarcity. This is fairly basic economics. The more scarce a thing is that is in demand, the higher the purchasing power of it's owners.

taking the dollar off of the Bretton Woods standard, making it 100 percent fiat, was as close to shouting 'bankrupt' from the rooftops as you could possibly get. It's probably the biggest debt default in history.

I hate you people that can pull off brevity! (j/k, I actually just wish I could be that brief and still get my point across.

I agree with this post 100 percent.

Based on my experiences with both carriers, you got upgraded. UPS can screw up anything, and seem proud of it.

given the often unpredictable behaviours of computers, I would have to say yes! 

Thanks! It may be the only balance in my life! (whiplash grin)

This is what needs to be addressed. Right now, most who are using bitcoin are apparently using it as savings or an "alternative" currency. If we are to see this experiment succeed in the long term, then that perception needs to change. Prior to 1937, the dollar was GOLD, and it was used in daily transactions. Bitcoin has some of the advantages of gold and much of the easy utility of fiat, plus it's scarcity and generation protocol make it likely to increase in value over time (which was rather up and down with gold over the centuries).

Simply put, the more people USE bitcoin in daily transactions, the higher it's value. As for the transaction fees driving people away, not so much. Visa and Mastercard thrive on transaction fees. People barely notice.

I asked Bitcoinorama to point Sam to the post. He most likely read it. Hopefully I wasn't too harsh Wasn't my intent, but they do need to do those things.

Bingo!

Oh, I freely admit that it was a fluke (the one I saw was not the ASIC miner thing, I do remember that.) But to say it's unreachable to have 600+ transactions in a ten minute period? I must severely disagree! How many dollar transactions do you think happen in ten minutes? Personally, I have no idea, but I do know that it's several orders of magnitude higher than that.

This is what I'm trying to say. If we can find a way to take BTC mainstream, that 200 BTC/block would be a LOW average.

[soapbox]

This is why it is essential that miners start promoting bitcoin for general exchange in any way you possibly can. TX fees are the future of mining profitability, and for that future to come to fruition, BTC has to be as useable as the dollar. It has massive advantages OVER the dollar if it can gain mainstream acceptance.
I saw a post recently where one block had over 200 BTC in TX fees. That should be EVERY block, and it would be if BTC were a mainstream currency. Then you wouldn't be worrying about short term ROI, as every block would be significantly more powerful than simply it's block reward.
Volume of purchase is the game that needs to be opened up. Right now, even though it has garnered a significant amount of notice, BTC remains a niche money rather than a generally useful currency. If you want your miners to make you money, then you gotta expand your horizons. We need to see all sorts of thing priced in BTC, with the various national fiats as the ALTERNATIVE price, rather than the other way 'round.
[/soapbox]

Officially declared as such in 1971.

I've noticed the same thing, but the drop seems to still end up a little above where it was. I've also seen an odd correlation with gold over the last few months. Not totally consistent, but pretty close. When gold drops bitcoin goes up. Doesn't seem to correlate with other (dollar/Euro etc) exchange rates either, just gold.

Haven't graphed it, it's just eyeball analysis, but it's interesting.

Plus I'm rather encouraged that BTC recovered to it's previous level in just under five days after the precipitous drop on the news of the Silk Road bust. I knew it was a panic sell, of course, but I thought it would take longer to recover. I just wish I'd had some dollars to throw at it that day.

Might I suggest a little more tact? You do go after people like a terrier with "big dog" syndrome.

UPS blows goats. I have about 30 years of proof!

Short term thinking.

The exponential rise cannot continue indefinitely. The gradual (though rather nice today) rise in bitcoin is LIKELY to continue.

Did that. Wish I could have done more.

Yeah, I think so too. I think we're looking at a bunch of "gung-ho" engineers and managers who bit off more than they could chew, and most importantly, failed to account for Mr. Murphy. I suspect they are suffering from wounded pride and reacting as engineers usually do in such a case: trying to fix it before they say anything. Commendable on the engineering floor, but stupid in the wider world of commerce. They REALLY need to hire a professional PR team. A good PR guy can say nothing in a lot of words and calm people the fuck down. That's what they need right now. It appears that they are trying to do right by their customers, but don't really know how. It happens. A lot. It can break an otherwise great company, and that they need to get sorted. Now.

Sam, if you are reading these forums (or Alex, point him here if you would be so kind), I am a rather experienced restaurant manager and I can give you some serious pointers here about customer service. In my industry, our CS margins are measured in minutes, or we lose. You have a bit more leeway than that, but you should act as if you don't. Your engineers pulled off a miracle. No doubt about that. It appears that in the large picture, they got their shit straight together.

Now it's your turn. I'm being blunt, not mean. You need to do one thing and stop doing another.

You need to get a PR team together RIGHT NOW, to do daily updates and communication, and most particularly to smooth ruffled feathers. Silence is not golden. If you have nothing to update, it's STILL better to SAY SO. Often. This makes the customers feel as if they are being taken seriously, even when they're not. To me it's obvious that you ARE taking them serious, but you aren't illustrating it very well. You should have somebody making a status report at least twice a day while y'all are getting things sorted. I know it's a pain in the ass, but it's necessary.

What you need to stop doing is talking about policy. At all. Because if you make an offhand or exuberant comment on camera, and later have to alter it, you look like an idiot or a liar. You don't appear to me to be either of those, but the perception of a loose cannon CEO can often be worse than the actuality of a Loose Cannon CEO. Just ask Bernie Ebbers. His mouth shot down Worldcomm far more than the actual problems they had. For the sake of full disclosure, I worked for Worldcomm when all that shit went down, and I had met Mr. Ebbers on three occasions. I believe he was not in the wrong, and Worldcomm was a great employer. Their successor, OTOH, sucked badly. But they are still in business and Worldcomm is not. Run whatever you are going to say in public by your lawyers. Your bottom line will thank you, and it will contribute to your success. In modern warfare, you have to use the right sort of weapons. In the world of business, the best sidearm you can carry is a good lawyer.

Good luck to all involved. It is my belief that KnC is a good outfit who hit some speedbumps and didn't know how to handle it. I frankly expected them to perform far worse than they so far had, and still would have bet on them. Engineering they are clearly good at. The front of the house needs serious revision. I think they'll get there. These are not stupid men. But pride is a double edged sword, and can do more damage than stupidity if not controlled.